My favorite five photographs that I took

Here are some of my favorite photographs that I have taken over the course of a couple of months. All five of these photographs were taken around Billings, Mt. I also used my Canon Rebel Xsi camera for all of these photos.

This photograph of a wild mustang was taken at the Bighorn Canyon National Park. I love this photograph because the horse is staring right at use and I have never seen a wild mustang before in its natural habitat. The one thing that I don't like about this picture is the fact that it is a little blurry because I under exposed it.

This photograph was taken at Pioneer Park in downtown Billings. I took this picture in the mid- afternoon. I love this photograph because, these two mallard ducks are looking at each other. I would have liked it if I took the picture when the female duck was in front of the male duck better but I still think it is a cool picture.

This photograph is one of my favorites because to me it looks like a snake coraling around a tree limb. I took this picture at Riverfront Park which is near downtown Billings, MT. I took a lot of these kinds of pictures but this one is the best out of the pictures I took. There isn't really anything that I don't like about this picture just because I have never taken a photograph of water that has turned out so clear.

This photograph was also one of my favorite photographs that I took because, I love the color of the wild berries around the nest. I took this picture at Two Moon Park which is located in the heights of Billings, MT. One thing that I would like to change about this photograph would be to have the background more blurred out. Overall, I enjoyed taking this picture.

This particular photograph was taken in the early morning at Bighorn Canyon National Park. I think this photograph of white tailed deer is kind of funny. It looks like that one deer has huge antlers. I also like how the deer are moving in a circular motion. Although I would like to have a clearer picture I like it.

Bob Johnson the nature photographer from the Pacific Northwest

I found this website when I was searching for nature photographers in Washington State. Apparently, Bob Johnson who is the photographer lives in Seattle, Washington. He has always loved photography since he was a kid. His family tended to move around a lot so that enabled him to take pictures of the rest of the country. Bob has been photographing for about 20 years. He is currently a member of the NANPA, Seattle Mountainers, and Nature Photographers of the Pacific Northwest. Most of his pictures are centered around earthbound light. I looked at some of his photographs and I especially liked the ones of Mt. Rainier. The photographs displayed a lot of natural sunlight.

I would highly recommend looking up the website: http://www.earthboundlight.com/

Rockies Senior Art Show

In the Rocky art show room there are three former Rocky students that had their senior show up. The first students name is, Krista Hoyes she displayed the emotions of flamenco dancers. A couple of pictures that captured my attention was Solea because, this dancer displayed the feeling of pain and despair in such a unique way. In fact there were two Solea pictures one was on oil on canvas and the other was water color and color pencils. I liked the water color painting better because it showed more details throughout the picture. The second artist was Monica Geary which captured recent work. Her paintings were of clothing designs and fabrics. I really liked the shadows in the model paintings. Finally, Cassie Scheidecker who is capturing the emotions in human portraits. Since she has been recently diagnoised with a type of arthritis she had paintings on the wall that showed how each day can be different even when they are the same. I loved how she opened up to people and could share with everyone her diagnose. Overall, I really enjoyed walking around the Rocky art show because, it displayed something that everyone can relate to.

The Nature Photographer Magazine

I became very interested when reading this article about Nature Photography. This magazine only comes out once every season ( Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall). Nature Photography magazine isn't just for the professionals but encourage the amateurs to get involved too. Within this magazine their 5 main objectives are, how to photograph, how to use specialized equipment, understand natural history information, use field techniques, and read equipment reviews. All this magazine wants to do is to help people photograph wildlife in a way where they can enjoy what this world has to offer.

I would highly recommend looking into " Nature Photography Magazine" by, viewing this website: http://www.naturephotographermag.com/

"Preparing Images for Presentation"

During this section we will learn how to display that "perfect" image. Have you ever wondered how some photographs have really vivant colors? Or how the shadows over the mountains look so dramatic? Well, within this section we will discover how to produce those same types of photographs.

The original photograph is called a "Raw" picture because it's the very first photograph that is taken. The picture isn't enhanced but, in the original mode. When you are a professional photographer you want to make sure that you save the original "Raw" photograph just in case you need to fix it or to have prof of the original. When changing your photograph from the camera to the computer you need to convert the picture to TIFF of PSD form. You however, do not want to convert your picture to JPEG on the computer because this setting tends to lose data.

Next of all, after converting the image you might want to fix up the color composition. There are three main ways to do this:

1) Use ProPhoto RGB: Allows you to use the largest color space which, is great for fine-art-printing.

2) Using Adobe RGB: This is mainly used for high- quality commercial printing like calender making or magazine articles.

3) Adobe sRGB IEC619662.1: This is the smallest color space that is used especially for web-posting.

This section is the one that I really like because you can change your photograph to make it line up properly. Basically, if you took a photograph of the ocean and the water didn't go straight across the image than you can remove or cut some of the image to make it look straight. It's kind of like using a ruler on the computer to fix your picture. To do this on your computer you need to use the Curve mode by going to, (Images>Adjustments>Curves). If you have a Windows than hold down the Control key and click on the part of the image you want to fix. However, if you have a Macintosh hold down the Command key. Once you have the line over your image you can move it by using the arrow keys to go up and down. By going down you may darken the certain area. By going up you can lighten the certain area.

After you are done fixing up the color and contrast of your image. You need to retouch up some parts of your image by using a healing brush or a clone stamp tool. Usually, this tools are needed when there is a dirt spot on the image or if you want to hide something in the image. A healing bush uses painted pixel samples from one part of the image to transfer to another part of the image. The clone stamp tool is copies of pixels from one area of the image to transfer to another part; like the healing brush. However, the clone stamp tool is used for bigger areas like cutting out a stop sign or a rock.

For more information on "Preparing Images for Presentation" I would highly recommend reading the book, "Nature Photography" written by, Tim Fitzharris.

Photography Assignment

Here are some photographs I have taken at Rocky Mountain College on November 12, 2009.

This photograph is a reflection of trees in the puddle on the sidewalk at Rocky Mountain College in Billings,MT. The photograph was taken in the morning of a cold, snowy day. I used a Canon Rebel Xsi camera.

(AV) Aperture Value: 1/100

(TV) Shutter Speed: F8

The next picture was also taken at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT.

I used a Canon Rebel Xsi camera to take this picture of a water drop on a tree. This particular image shows details of the water drop up close.

(TV) Shutter speed: 1/60

(AV) Aperture Value: F8

The next photograph I took was again at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT. This image was taken on November 12, 2009 durning the afternoon when it was snowing steadily. The camera I used was a Canon Rebel Xsi. This picture is of a blurred cherry tree with an oak tree in the background. So this picture displays the use of the color red!

(TV) Shutter Speed: 1/30

(AV) Aperture Value: F11

On this photograph I used the use of hyperfocal setting by taking a photograph of leaves with light shinning on them to create a image with everything in focus. This photograph was taken at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT. It was cold with a trace of snow flurries in the early morning. I used a Canon Rebel Xsi camera to take this photo.

(TV) Shutter Speed: 1/100

(AV) Aperture Value: F8

This next photograph that I took was of an oak tree that had light shinning upon it but the tree was in the right half of the image to create a "rule of thirds". This photograph was again taken at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT durning the morning of November 12, 2009. It was cold with snow flurries and not a whole lot of natural light. The camera that was used to take this photograph was a Canon Rebel Xsi.

(TV) Shutter Speed: 1/50

(AV) Aperture Value: F8

On this photograph I used the use of color as my main focus. Because when this photo was taken there was snow built up on the trees which made it for a great background. This photograph was taken at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT. The picture is a cherry tree with snow covered on it. I used a Canon Rebel Xsi camera to take this picture. This picture was also enhanced to make the photo brighter.

(AV) Aperture Value: 1/60

(TV) Shutter Speed: F8

This photograph is of a blurred motion of a duck flapping its wings. I took this photograph at Two Moon park on November 14, 2009. This picture was taken with a Canon Rebel Xsi camera. The weather was cold and crisp in the late afternoon when this picture was taken.

(AV) Aperture Value: 1/50

(TV) Shutter Speed: F22

This next photograph I also took at Two Moon Park in Billings, MT. The picture is of a bird silhouette in a tree. I took this image on November 14, 2009 in the evening time when the sun was going down. The weather was a bite chilly but clear.

(TV) Shutter Speed:1/1600

(AV) Aperture Value: F5.6

This last picture is of a rock that shows side light due to the light bouncing off the one side. I took this photograph on November 12,2009 at rocky Mountain College. This picture was cropped through iphoto. I used a Canon Rebel Xsi camera to take this photograph.

(TV) Shutter Speed: 1/50

(AV) Aperture Value: F8

Pictures from Bighorn National Forest

On November 8, 2009 I went to Bighorn National Forest which is located in Southern Montana and Northern Wyoming. The pictures below were taken in the early morning on a clear but cold day. The nearest town to were these pictures were taken was Lovell, Wyoming.

The picture of the mule deer was taken with a Canon Rebel Xsi camera.

(TV) Shutter Speed: 1/125

(AV) Aperture Value: F11

The picture of the rock was taken with a Canon Rebel Xsi camera.

(TV) Shutter Speed: 1/200

(AV) Aperture Value: F13

The picture of the wild horse was taken with a Canon Rebel Xsi camera.

(TV) Shutter Speed: 1/125

(AV) Aperture Value: F29